Staff arrives at Gabii

The staff of the Gabii Project is beginning its work on site tomorrow, in preparation for the field season and the arrival on site of the full team on 22 June 2009. This week the staff faces various challenges - from the mundane chores associated with setting up work spaces and equipment to the more engaging tasks of discussing excavation and documentation methodology and the beginning of digital data collection at Gabii. We expect to have more news to share in this space very soon, so stay tuned.

Gabi topsoil survey

As preparations for the start of excavations at Gabii have been underway, we'd like to share news of the recent survey of the topsoil layers at Gabii by the project's new friend and colleague, Stuart Elton. Stuart spent a week in Gabii and Frascati and used a metal detector to survey the topsoil layers as they were being removed to expose the main excavation area. The survey was worthwhile in the end and we thank Stuart for doing such a great job at it.

And they're off....!

Happily, work at Gabii for 2009 has begun! Since 14 May, work on site has been underway. Thus far, activities have been fairly mundane, including delimiting the entire excavation area and preparing for the installation of the perimeter fence. Once the fence is set, excavation huts and facilities will be put in place and in just a few days the first layer of top soil will be cleared.

Summer approaches

The Gabii Project team is busily preparing for the beginning of the 2009 field season. We are fresh from stimulating discussion about Italian urbanism that took place at the 8th conference of Roman Archaeology held recently in Ann Arbor and buoyed by how much interest our colleagues have expressed in the outcomes of the geophysical survey and the anticipation for the inception of excavations in about 8 weeks' time. During the field season we will be posting regular updates to this blog, so we hope you'll keep track of our activities in the field.

Gabii Project at the 8th Roman Archaeology Conference (RAC)

Marcello Mogetta will present a paper at the upcoming 8th Roman Archaeology Conference (RAC) that is being hosted by the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, April 3-5, 2009. M. Mogetta's paper, in a session on current approaches to the study of urbanism in first millennium BCE Italy is entitled, ""Grid Cities": Latin Planned Urbanism and Roman Colonial Layouts".

Gabii Project at the 6th 'Convegno Lazio e Sabina'

Results of the 2007 and 2008 field campaigns at Gabii will be presented at the 6th 'Convegno Lazio e Sabina' this week in Rome, Italy. The three day conference is being hosted by the École française de Rome, the British School at Rome, and the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Romani; the conference runs March 4 through March 6, 2009.

The Gabii Project's paper, which will be presented by Nicola Terrenato, is "Urbanistica ortogonale a Gabii: risultati delle nuove prospezioni geofisiche e prospettive per il futuro" (co-authored by J. A. Becker, A. Gallone, and S. Kay).

Gabii at the AIA in Philadelphia

Results from the 2007 and 2008 field seasons at Gabii will be presented at the upcoming annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, to take place in Philadelphia, Pa., in January 2009. The paper will appear in session 4A on Saturday, January, 10, 2009, from 8:30 until 11:00 AM and is entitled "A New Plan of an Ancient Italian City: Gabii Revealed".